Israel Prepares for Ground War

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel sent more troops to the Gazaborder Wednesday, rapidly moving forward with preparations for apossible ground offensive as the next stage of its military assaulton the coastal territory's Hamas rulers. Israel rebuffed calls by world leaders for a truce, and Hamasalso was cold to a cease-fire. Instead, both intensified their fire. Israel bombed a mosquethat it said was used to store rockets as well as vital smugglingtunnels along the Egyptian border, and the Islamic militantshammered southern Israeli cities with about 60 rockets. Israeli troops trudged between dozens of tanks in muddy,rain-sodden fields outside Gaza, assembling equipment, cleaningweapons and scrubbing out tank barrels. Their commanders movedforward with preparations for a ground operation, said an Israelidefense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of thesensitive nature of the information. The U.N. Security Council met Wednesday night to consider anArab request for a legally binding resolution that would condemnIsrael and halt the attacks. But the United States called a draftresolution "unacceptable" because it made no mention of haltingthe Hamas rockets. A vote on a resolution was not expected beforeMonday, Sudan's U.N. ambassador said. Diplomatic efforts by U.S., European and Middle Eastern leadersappeared to be having little effect. A French proposal for a48-hour cease-fire to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza failedto gain traction. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the timewas not ripe to consider it. A separate proposal by Turkey and Egypt, two of Israel's fewallies in the Muslim world, also seemed to be attracting littleserious study in Israel or Gaza, where Hamas leaders dismissed talkof a truce. With a shrinking number of targets to hit from the air and topHamas leaders deep in hiding, a ground operation seemed all themore likely. In five days of raids, Israeli warplanes carried outabout 500 sorties against Hamas targets and helicopters flewhundreds more combat missions, a senior Israeli military officersaid, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with militaryregulations. The government has approved the call-up of more than 9,000reserve soldiers. Heavy rain clouds cover that could hinder groundforces were expected to lift Thursday. U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the death toll wasestimated at 320-390 and the number of injured at 1,500-1,900.Between 20 percent and 25 percent of the dead are either women orchildren, said Karen Abu Zayd, U.N. Relief and Works Agencycommissioner. Hamas says some 200 uniformed members of its security forceshave been killed, and the U.N. says at least 60 Palestiniancivilians have died. In Israel, three civilians and a soldier have been killed byrocket fire, which has reached deeper into Israel than ever. Thesites of the missile hits have drawn curious crowds. In the Negev desert city of Beersheba, people visited a schoolwhere a rocket made a direct hit Tuesday evening, slamming throughthe ceiling and showering debris on students' desks. A visitorilluminated by a shaft of light through the hole in the roof saidwith some astonishment, "This is my daughter's seat." In Gaza, the sites of airstrikes have also attracted the curiousand the defiant, including a Palestinian man who planted a greenHamas flag atop a mound of debris at a flattened mosque, itsminaret still thrusting toward a stormy sky. The Israeli military, which leveled the mosque Wednesday, saidthat it was being used as a missile storage site and that the bombsdropped on it set off secondary explosions. It was the fifth mosquehit in the campaign. The chief of Israel's internal security services, Yuval Diskin,told a government meeting that Hamas members had hidden insidemosques, believing they would be safe from airstrikes and usingthem as command centers, according to an Israeli security officialwho spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed toshare the information. Other militants were hiding in hospitals, some disguised asdoctors and nurses, Diskin said, according to the official. Early Thursday, huge explosions shook Gaza City as Israeliplanes bombed three government buildings and the parliament.Hospital officials said 25 wounded were evacuated from nearbyhouses. Echoing Israel's cool response to truce proposals, a seniorHamas leader with ties to its military wing said that now was notthe right time to call off the fight. Hamas was unhappy with thesix-month truce that ended just before the fighting began becauseit didn't result in an easing of Israel's crippling economicblockade of Gaza. Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said that although Hamas leaders hadbeen driven underground, the Gaza government was functioning andhad met in the past few days. "What our people want is clear: an immediate stop to all kindsof aggression, the end of the siege by all means, the opening ofall border crossings, and international guarantees that theoccupation will not renew this terrorist war again," Nunu said. Israel's latest airstrikes concentrated on crushing the manysmuggling tunnels under Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Theyprovide a crucial lifeline, not just for Hamas rulers, but also forbringing in food and fuel for Gaza's people. Holmes, the U.N. humanitarian chief, expressed concern about thefighting's impact on civilians. He said hospitals were strugglingto cope with casualties and the lack of fuel deliveries had forcedGaza's power plant to shut down Tuesday. But U.N. officials said the major need was grain and other food.Holmes said the Kerem Shalom crossing remained open and 55 trucksgot through Tuesday and about 60 on Wednesday, mainly carryingfood. He said Israel had been "cooperative in principle aboutthese supplies, but we need to see more results." White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials wereseeing "a good flow" of medical and food supplies into Gaza. Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza after Hamas fighters violentlyseized control of the territory in 2007 and the two nations haveopened their borders only to let in limited humanitarian aid. On Wednesday, several wounded Palestinians were taken across theIsraeli and Egyptian borders for treatment, including a childbundled in blankets. Gaza's southern smuggling zone was hit again Wednesday morningand evening in airstrikes that left vast craters over the collapsedunderground passages. Hospital officials said two people werekilled and 42 wounded in the bombing.

Diskin, the Israeli security chief, told a Cabinet meeting thatthe tunnel network had been badly damaged. Israel said more than 80tunnels were destroyed. Several hundred tunnels ran under theborder before Israeli warplanes began striking. Hamas was trying to smuggle some of its activists to Egyptthrough still-passable tunnels, Diskin said. Israel fears that opening border crossings would allow Hamas -which remains officially committed to Israel's destruction - tofurther strengthen its hold on the territory. Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Hamas rival whocontrols only the West Bank, suggested he would not continue peacetalks with Israel at any price. He said on Palestinian TV that thestalled talks had become useless and were not reaching any of thegoals - namely the creation of a Palestinian state. "Negotiation is not a goal by itself; it's a tool," Abbassaid. "Unless it is a tool to achieve peace ... there is no needfor it to continue." Gaza's militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel onWednesday evening, including one in the city of Ashkelon that wascaught on video. It showed a man on a sidewalk ducking for coveralong a wall as the missile exploded in a cloud of smoke a fewsteps behind him. The city of 120,000 people 11 miles north of Gaza has been afrequent target. Israel's rescue service said it had responded to 250 rocketattack scenes since Saturday and treated 48 wounded, most of whomhad light injuries. School was canceled in much of Israel's south because of therocket threat. The 18,000 students at Ben-Gurion University inBeersheba, southern Israel's only university, were also told tostay home. Beersheba, 19 miles from Gaza, had never before been withinrange of Gaza rockets, reflecting the increasing sophistication ofwhat started out as homemade weaponry. Now militants are firing weapons made in China and Iran thathave dramatically expanded their range and put more than one-tenthof Israel's population in their sights, defense officials said. In Gaza, two Palestinian medics were killed and two others werewounded when an Israeli missile hit next to their ambulance east ofGaza City, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said it did notknow of the incident.

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